Are they reliable? Can anyone recommend something stylish for my girlfriend for $15k and under? I was thinking an IS300 but I can not seem to find any that have not been whored to death ...

 

$15k would mean the A4 would have over 60k miles, yes? If so then i wouldnt bother unless you knew every detail of its service history. Great car but gotta keep an eye on certain things.

For a car guy i would recommend the A4 but to someone who just needs a car to drive around, I wouldnt.

Can a 04 TSX be had for 15k?

 

we are leaning father for the is300. I dont think the TSX has dropped in value that much. MAYBE 18k ... That is for someone that is desperate ...

 

I see 04 TSXs listed for sale in the 17k range which means you could probably get them for 15-16k.

 

Not compared to Hondas or Toyotas- if anyone would know, it would be Crazy Sellout^^; I completely agree with his advice.
When you write "stylish" do you mean "cute," "substantial looking" or "sporty"? I would always say that the Miata/MX-5 is a good buy, and Minis are popular (but suffer from some reliability gremlins). Accord Coupe?

 

I'm thinking IS300 ... Although they suck in the snow ...

 

need a stylish 4 door sedan. Stylish means, not bland (aka toyota camry).

 

Uggh-- great reliability is tough to find outside of the Japanese makes, which are all pretty bland looking in that price range. I love the looks and interior of the prior gen VW Passats, but wouldn't recommend them at all.
Saab 9-3 or 9-5, Volvo S-40 (OK, stylish in a slab-sided way), Mazda 6, Pontiac G6? The Ford Fusion is probably too new to be at $15K used.
Maybe an Infiniti I-30 or I-35 may be in that price range, although "stylish" might not be the proper adjective...
G/L!

 

Correct me if im wrong but CR puts audi the highest for reliablity out of german cars right? I know they put Mercedes at the bottem but I think audi as a whole might be over BMW as well. I think the A4 is a really nice car. I have a granddad with 100k on his 99 A6 and its still going strong.

 

I'm curious about this as well, as I'm thinking about replacing my 'lude sometime soon, and an A4 has definitely come to mind. What EXACTLY are the maintenance problems that occur w/ this car? It seems like a very well built car, so any info would be greatly appreciated.

Also, what are the differences between the different years for this specific gen? Oh, AND, how is the automatic tranny in this car? I most likely will have to go w/ an auto my next car () due to downtown commute, so that would be great to know as well.

 

nobody has commented on the IS300 ... jerks!

 

i like it and it's a Toyota, so i assume it's reliable

 

If I hear Toyota/Lexus or Honda/Acura I most of the time automatically think relaible car.

 

Infiniti I35

Personally, I like the IS300 and was considering it for my gf myself, but ended up getting her an Infiniti I30t because it was better in snow and over all was a more comfortable ride. The IS300 is nice, but it was just to "sporty" I guess. The I30/I35 is actually quite luxurious considering we spent less than $15k on it w/ less than 50k miles.

...just a thought...

 

Should've made the the thread about the IS300 than instead of the A4

 

not with snow tires. my gf had one when she lived in denver where it snows half the yr, got around just fine

 

This is the JD 2005 long term durability survey...so these would be '99-01 generation of cars. This is a different study than the initial quality survey (which I haven't seen so don't know what the latest rankings are). But if you are looking at long term "reliability" (not that 5 years is long), this would be a study.

According to this, looks like Porsche is most reliable of the germans with BMW next. Audi is way below. Anyone have the CR study to compare?

 

The IS is a very reliable car- powered by the 2jz n/t motor And it's stylish enough for her with the brand cachet

 

I have posted in ALL the Audi A4 threads in the past 3 years. I have mentioned numerous times the issues it MAY have. I sold my A4 at 45k miles with no issues besides a few coilpacks going bad. No biggie.

Stay away from the CVT tranny from Audi. Otherwise the other automatic is just fine.

Here are some threads on the Audi A4.
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...=audi+coilpack
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...audi+coilpacks
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...audi+coilpacks

 

just an update...2006 dependability study (so ratings are probably based on 2001-2002 models)



MB is relatively decently placed since 2005.

 

^ I dont like those tests. The only major problem with the B6 A4 is the coilpack design.

When they fail your car stalls out. So to the average person it seems the car is a POS and always breaks down on them. What they dont know is that the part is $28 and takes 2min to replace without any tools. You dont even get dirty by doing it.

I still dont get how Audi cant get a working coilpack yet after releasing so many revisions though.

 

whether $28 or $2800 doesn't change the fact that it has a problem.

This is long term durability...problems measured 4-5 years later, and it is the rating for the entire brand's lineup. The a4 can be perfect, but if the rest of the lineup sucks, then that's going to bring the brand's ranking down.

With that said, I would still rather trust a biased study with a larger sampling than the opinions of a handful of people i may know or the opinions of a handful of people on internet forums that may or may not have experience with a particular brand or car.

 

I rather talk to car enthusiasts who understand cars than the general public.

 

Actually, I'm the other way in dealing with "reliability" issues-- the general public will know that there is a problem, which means I can discuss that when recommending a car to my non-enthusiast spouse or friends (who will say "what's a coilpack-- is that like a six pack of beer??").
I tend to rely on Consumer Reports for reliability reputations of cars generally, but that wouldn't stop me from getting an enthusiast car that is problematic: I can research the specific issue and determine whether it's a problem I can risk having or repair on the road. FWIW, the more likely a failure will immobilize the car, the less desireable the car to me.

 

^ Oh i agree 100%, which is why earlier i said i wouldnt recommend the A4 to someone who arent into cars.

 

sure, when you talk about things like moddabilityl, handling, acceleration, gearing, etc. etc. etc., it's good to talk to a car enthusiast.

but when it comes to reliability, what is there to understand? if a car is more prone to problems than another car, then it's more prone to problems than another car regardless of whether the owner understands what the problme is or not. Further, enthusiasts have more tolerance to unreliability than the general public (as you have pointed out), so opinions from them concerning reliability would paint a skewed picture than what would actually be closer to reality.

for example, lets's say 20 people had coil pack problems. 19 "general" people would say they had a problem...1 enthusiast is more likely to say it's not a problem since it cost $28 and 2 min. to fix. Does the problem exist? Sure, but you wouldn't know that if you asked that enthusiast.

The advantage of an enthusiast is he can "weigh" the problems and how prone or major it is, and therefore make a better decision whether the unreliability is acceptable or not rather than ruling a car out just for that...but because of his tolerance and preference for other factors "skewing" his opinion and the fact that enthusiasts' opinions are "skewed" in favor of differing factors, there is no baseline for comparison (maybe 1 enthusiast would consider the coil pack a problem, maybe another wouldn't...no consistent baseline). With the general public, the sampling size is large enough and the tolerance for any problem consistent enough that it can it can serve as a baseline for comparing brand vs. brand or car vs. car. With a study like JD's, you can't take brand X as unreliable, you have to take brand X as less reliable than brand Y.

So to clarify what i said earlier, when it comes to reliability, i would rather trust a survey of the general public comparing brand to brand (or car to car) rather than the opinion of enthusiasts who is likely to be more biased towards cars he owns and bought for certain reasons (ie who on this forum would have the opinion that Mercury is relatively reliable...since it's not an "enthusiast" brand, opinion of it is skewed since not many "enthusiasts" know much about it).

 

Depends how many miles shes going to put on the car, and how much money shes willing to spend on maintenance costs. If someone is only going to put 5,000 miles on an A4 with like 40,000 miles there shouldn't be any big problems other than replacing taillights and headlights. However if the miles are high or she puts a lot of miles on it, expect to have to replace the timing belt, water pump, and probably electrical systems. Then again I'm not too familar with A4s, look up consumer reports, MSN autos, and someother websites.

 

lots of miles. Probably 15k to 20k ...

 

Yikes that would require a lot of maintenances costs, maybe she should look into Japanese cars. Unless theres a good deal on an A4 with around 30,000 miles.

 

well that is why I was thinking an accord or is300 since they seem to do well.